Vietnam and Gaza: Issues for Student Involvement

VIETNAM AND GAZA: ISSUES FOR STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

There are certain parallels between Vietnam and Gaza: a militarily powerful country raining destruction on the civilian population of a small, underdeveloped land; a sense of the conflict as symbolic of other political and colonial contexts; the feeling among protesters that they are on the side of right and are fighting for the underdog; anti-colonialism; the outrageous disparity of casualties: 1,200 Israeli dead and an estimated 21,500 Palestinian dead (as of 12/31/23), while in Vietnam there were 58,000 American dead and 3 million Vietnamese dead.

Student activists are seeing the parallels and are organizing, which is easier now with the internet. The result has been large demonstrations on campuses and in cities. The creation of Israel in 1948 was once heralded by the Left. No more: it has become a force for the suppression of the oppressed.

Sources: The New York Times, 12/26 and 12/31, 2023 and the British Medical Journal (BMJ), 2008.